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Dear Friends,
This is the year designated as the "Year for the Priesthood" starting
with the feast of the Sacred Heart, the 19th of June, 2009 until June
19, 2010.
Let us remember all of our priests in prayer.
Peace!
Father Angelus
Where would we be, or what would we have
without the Catholic Priesthood?
It was the priest who received us into the Church at our Baptism - -
made us members of the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ - - channeled
faith, hope and love right into our souls.
It was from the hand of the priest that we
received our First Holy Communion; and God willing, it will be from the
hand of the priest that some day we will receive Holy Viaticum, our last
Holy Communion, our food for our trip into eternity.
It is the hand of the priest that raises itself
in absolution over us in the confessional. With just a few words ("I
absolve you") he is able to wipe away the crusted filth of decades.
For a priest to restore the life of God to a
soul is a greater achievement than the creation of the world at the
beginning of time. (St. Augustine).
Near the end of our life it will be the right thumb of the priest that
dips itself in the oil of the sick to anoint our foreheads and the palms
of our hands with our last anointing, Extreme Unction.
It is only the hand of the priest that raises
itself officially in blessing over us in the name of Mother Church.
He it was who blessed your marriage
sacramentally with the grace of Jesus Christ.
He it is who receives and holds sacred your
most guarded secrets.
As St. John Mary Vianney (Patron saint of
parish priests) would say: "Leave a parish without a priest for twenty
years and idolatry will reign there. They will worship beasts."
When the wicked want to destroy religion they
begin by attacking the priest because they know that where there is no
priest, there is no sacrifice; and where there is no sacrifice, there is
no true religion. A Church without an altar, a Church without a priest
is a Church that is spiritually bankrupt.
If the priest offered only one Holy Mass, his
20-21 years of schooling would have been recompensed and paid back a
million times because at the Consecration of that one Mass the all
powerful Son of God becomes obedient to the words and command of his
priest to take up residence under the form of bread and wine.
At the moment of Consecration the priest
assumes the personality of Jesus Christ Himself, so much so that if the
priest would ever dare to say over the bread: "this is the body of Jesus
Christ" instead of "this is my body", the Consecration would never take
place.
If you ever want to know what makes the vow of
chastity and/or this promise of celibacy possible for a very normal,
male, Catholic priesthood - - what makes it possible, bearable,
fruitful, and I daresay even joyful, it is the power we have with just a
few words to bring the Son of God right down into the cradle of our
hands, to feed our own souls with Him and literally to put God right
into your mouth.
With such power over the presence of the Risen
Lord, we might be tempted to think we are some sort of super human
beings. So the Church with the wisdom of centuries intervenes and says:
"Priest, you make a promise of celibacy for a lifetime; that will keep
you humble, because of and by yourself you could not begin to keep such
a commitment for even an hour."
Invited early on from tender years to make such
a sacrifice authentically, the priest is disposed to approach the altar
with confidence. No one dare approach the altar of sacrifice without
first having made the sacrifice the Lord requests.
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